Board game apparatus

ABSTRACT

A board game with a plurality of pivotless rotatable game pieces mounted captive in the board and having integral index means on each game piece for the combined purpose of manipulating the game piece and indicating directionally whether the game piece is either &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;in play&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; or &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;out of play.&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; Pivotless rotation of each game piece is provided by cooperating complementary curvatures of the peripheral surface of each game piece and the wall of the respective recess within which each game piece is located.

United States Patent 1191 Kunik et a1. [4 11 Jan. 2, 1973 s41 BOARD GAME APPARATUS 1,555,980 10/1925 Johnson ..273/132 [75] Inventors: I. J0ld8ll Kllllik; Alvin L. Sitomer, FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS both of New York, N.Y.

3,221 1891 Great Britain ..273/136 F [73] Assignees: I. Jordan Kunik' Alvin L. Sitomer 4 4 9 8 1 both of New York, N.Y par; 52, 20 5/1 6 Switzerland .273/136 F mterest to each Primary Examiner-Delbert B. Lowe 2 Filed: Jam 11 1971 Attorney-I. Jordan Kunik [21] Appl. No.: 105,558 g [57] ABSTRACT A board game with a plurality of pivotless rotatable [52] US. Cl ..273/130 R, 116/133, 273/ 136 F game pieces mounted captive in the board and having [51] Int. Cl. ..A63f 3/00 integral index means on each game piece f the [58] Field of Search ..273/130, 135, 136, 132; bined purpose of manipulating the game piece and i 116/133; 46/43 dicating directionally whether the game piece is either in play or out of play.v Pivo tless rotation of each [56] References Cited game piece is provided by cooperating complementary UNITED STATES PATENTS curvatures of the peripheral surface of each game piece and the wall of the respective recess within 2,230,178 1/1941 Campbell ..273/136 F which each game piece is located. 2,571,521 10/1951 Barnhart ..46/43 1,421,656 7/1922 Abele ..273/130 R 6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures mimmm 2m FIG.

ATTORNEY FIG 5 BOARD GAME APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to board games or the like and, more particularly, to a game in which game pieces are mounted captive within the board and are rotatable by integrally formed means on each game piece into either in play or out of play positions, said means also serving as an indicator for representing the game piece as being in play or out of play.

The game board and game pieces herein are intended to provide a novel physical embodiment of a game which heretofore has been played by marking a blackboard or a piece of paper with a number of spaced vertical lines, in a plurality of rows, forming a somewhat triangular array. For example, the top row may consist of five spaced vertical lines, the next or second row being made up of four spaced vertical lines, the third row being made up of three spaced vertical lines, and the bottom row being made up of two spaced vertical lines.

When played by two players alternately, the first player crosses off with chalk or pencil one or more horizontal, adjacent vertical lines in any row. The next player follows suit with the players alternating this procedure until a single, vertical line remains. That player who plays last and leaves one remaining game piece in play wins the game.

The game pieces as represented by the vertical marks may be designated as sticks and said sticks remain in play until they are crossed off (removed) by one of the players. The game is played by two opponents who take turns. At each turn, a player may cross off (remove) by chalk or pencil, as the case may be, as many or as few sticks as he desires from any one of the several rows of sticks" with the ultimate object of leaving his opponent fstuck" with the last remaining stick in whichever row that may be. The player stuck" with the last stick is the loser.

To increase interest, if desired, any additional rules or variations thereof may be agreed upon by the players. For example, the basic rules may permit a player to cross off all of the sticks in a single, horizontal row in one move, however, if a player were to remove one or more of the inside sticks other than those at the end of a horizongal row, those groups of sticks remaining to the left and right of the removed stick" or sticks shall be considered to be in separate rows and may not be removed together subsequently in one move.

Since it is desirable to play this game in a place where there is no blackboard handy or available, where erasures can be made or new games set up, or where it is inconvenient to mark up a number of successive sheets of paper in order to play the game, it is proposed herein to provide a game board of preferably portable size on which the game can be rapidly played in any locality and where the game board can be of such a size that it maybe readily carried in a players pocket and available for play in any place in any circumstance. The new game board herein can be quickly and easily re-set for each game so that a new game can be started immediately. The game board is reusable virtually indefinitely and can be made of inexpensive materials.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Game boards with rotatable game pieces mounted thereon are known in the art, but the prior devices are mechanically complicated or require special handles, cut-outs, pivot elements, imprints, and other auxiliary elements for placing said game pieces into in play or SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention consists of a simple game which comprises a flat game board having a plurality of circular apertures whose convex or concave edges each rotatably accommodate a circular game piece in the form of a disc having complementary concave or convex peripheral annular walls whereby said game pieces can be rotated selectively into either in play or out of play positions.

By virtue of the complementary convex and concave contours of the respective aperture walls and the game piece walls, there is established a rotating, slidable relationship therebetween while, at the same time, said configuration serves to hold the game piece captive within the board so that they cannot be dislodged or lost. I

A further important feature of the invention is the provision of an integrally formed, longitudinally raised boss on each of the game pieces which serves as a means for the player to grasp for rotating the game piece. At the same time, said boss serves as an indicator or pointer to represent whether the game piece is in play" or out of play, according as the boss is arrayed BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the game of the present invention wherein the game board is either enclosed within or forms a part of a box having a hinge lid; 1

FIG. 2 is a somewhat enlarged top view of the game board itself shown in FIG. 1, some parts being shown in dotted outline; a

FIG. 3 is a section view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2, some of the game pieces being shown in elevation;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view comparable to FIG. 3 showing an alternative embodiment for retaining the game piece within the game board;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view comparable to a portion of FIG. 3, showing the top surface of a game piece located below the top surface of the game board, and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view, similar to FIG. 3, of another embodiment of the game herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawing in detail, there is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 a rectangular game board generally designated 11 which is made of a suitable material such as plastics, paper mache, wood, or the like. The top surface 12 of the board 11 has a plurality of spaced apart flat bottom circular recesses 13 in a somewhat triangular array with, for example, a first horizontal row of five recesses, a second horizontal row of four recesses, a third horizontal row of three recesses, and a fourth horizontal row of two recesses.

In other embodiments of the same game, the number of rows and the recesses in each row may be modified while preserving the general triangular array thereof.

In still further embodiments, the game may be constructed with equal numbers of circular recesses 13 in each row, with the complete array being rectangular or square, depending upon the type of game the players wish to play, and the various types of rules that may be desired or indicated for playing the game.

Each flat bottom circular recess 13 has an annular, concave shaped wall 14 and accommodates a circular flat bottom game piece 16 having a complementary annular convex wall 17 which slidably mates with wall 14 when game piece 16 is rotated. The curvatures of respective walls 14 and 17 are substantially equal. Walls 14 and 17 are sufficiently juxtaposed so that the mating curvatures thereof cause each game piece 16 to be rotatably secured and retained within game board 12. The flat bottom of each game piece 16 is located near theflat bottom of its respective recess. Each game piece 16 is rotatable only in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane of game board 12.

Formed integrally on the top surface of each circular game piece 16 is a raised elongated boss 18 which is diametrically arrayed upon the piece. Boss 18 is sufficiently raised to a height that enables the player to grasp said boss with his thumb and fingers and to rotate the game piece 16 within recess 13. Since the annular wall 14 of recess 13 and annular wall 17 of game piece 16 are in slidable mating relationship therebetween, game piece 16 is rotatable within recess 13 upon its central axis without the provision of any pivot element connection between said game piece and game board 11.

Although boss 18 may preferably be molded integrally with game piece 16 out of a suitable plastic material, said boss may be separately applied to said game piece by other suitable means.

Embossed or otherwise marked by suitable means on the top surface 12 of game board 11 are a number of spaced, vertically aligned, index marks '19. A pair of said index marks are arrayed 180 apart adjacent or near opposite upper and lower edge portions of each recess 13. A corresponding number of horizontally aligned index marks 21 are similarly arrayed 180 apart adjacent or near the side edge portions of each recess 13. As a result, vertical index marks 19 are arrayed substantially 90 in respect of horizontal index marks 21.

When elongated boss 18 of each game piece 16 is arrayed vertically as shown in FIG. 2, said boss is also aligned with index marks 19. In that vertical position, it may be considered that each game piece 16 is alive or in play. When a particular player rotates a game piece 16 by manipulating boss 18 to turn it into the horizontal position as shown by the dotted line representation in the bottom row of game pieces in FIG. 2, then said boss will be aligned with index marks 21 to signify that that particular game piece is dead or out of play." The game proceeds in accordance with the procedure described hereinbefore.

In some embodiments, it may be convenient to reverse the curvatures of the respective mating surfaces of the game pieces and their respective recesses as shown, for example, in FIG. 4, wherein recess 22 has an annular convex wall 23 while game piece 24 has an annular concave wall 26. Walls 23 and 26 are in sufficiently close sliding juxtaposition whereby game piece 24 is retained captive in the game board in the same manner as game piece 16 is retained captive within its respective recess 13.

As in the case of game piece 16, game piece 24 also has an integrally formed raised longitudinal boss 27 by which the player can rotate game piece 24 within recess 22.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the horizontal index mark 28 may be recessed from the surface 12 of the game board rather than being in the form of a raised boss 21 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The vertical index marks (not shown) in such a case would likewise be recessed from the surface of the board. In still other embodiments, all of the index marks in any of the game boards may well be painted or otherwise applied instead of being embossed or indented. In any of the embodiments, the index marks may have different colors for decorative purposes.

Although the rows of out of play indexmarks 21 are illustrated as being arrayed relative to the rows of in play" index marks 19, it is understood that the out of play index marks 21 may be arrayed atv an angle other than 90, whereby game pieces may be rotated by the players less than or more than 90 to place said pieces out of play. Furthermore, it may be agreed by the players that bosses 18 may be initially arrayed horizontally to indicate in play pieces, and are rotated to the vertical positions to indicate out of play pieces. In some cases, index marks 19 and 21 may be completely dispensed with since vertical and horizontal" are intuitive, but they may be incorporated onto the game board for the sake of orderliness in playing the game.

In both embodiments of FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the board 11 and game pieces 16 and 24 may be made of a sufficiently stiff but nevertheless resilient material which will enable said game pieces to be snapped into position within their respective recesses 13 and 22. If game board 11 is made of a slightly flexible material whereby the bottom surface thereof can be curved around a semi-spherical or other suitably curved jig or the like, the diameter of the surface edges of the recesses may be enlarged and stretched sufficiently to insert the game pieces therein, after which the board 11 is removed from the jig and returns to its flattened condition, thereby causing the upper circumferences of said recesses to return to their original diameter and to retain the game pieces captive therein.

While it is preferable to have the top surface of each game piece flush with the top surface of game board 11, it is contemplated that the top surface of each game piece may be below the level of game board surface 12 to an extent where the upper edge of the manipulating and indicating boss is approximately at the level of surface 12 so that the whole game board with its captive pieces may even more readily be slipped into the pocket of a player. As shown in FIG. 5, the upper surface 31 of game piece 32 is below the surface 12 of the board 11 and the upper edge of boss 33 is substantially at a level with surface 12.

Although game board 11 is complete in itself with its captive game pieces 16 therein, it may be desired in some cases to enclose the game board in a suitable case or the like, such as shown in FIG. 1. The game board 11 itself may serve as the bottom portion of the case, while a pair of spaced-hinges 36 formed at the upper edge of said game board may cooperate with hinges 37 of a closure lid 38 having a snap element 39 which cooperates with snap element 41 on game board 11. When lid 38 is closed upon board 11, it will serve as a complete salable package, especially if it is desired to place into or imprint thereon a set of instructions for playing the game. In other cases, the lid may be made of a suitable material upon which there may be printed an advertising message or the like. In other embodiments, hinged lid 38 may be replaced by a rectangular box-like cover made of a suitable material and which may be readily applied to and removed from the game board.

A further embodiment of the game is shown in FIG. 6-

where the game board, generally designated 46, is formed of anupper panel 47 and a lower panel 48 which are bonded by suitable adhesive or fusing means to form a horizontal seam 49. Upper panel 47 has a plurality of spaced circular apertures 51 having a curved annular wall, while lower panel 48 has a plurality of spaced'circular recesses 52 having a curvedannular wall. Each aperture 51 is axially aligned with a corresponding recess 52. At their respective greatest diameters, said walls meet at seam 49 and jointly form a unitary annular curved wall which cooperates with th curved annular wall 17 of game piece 16.

, While upper and lower panels 47 and 48 may be made of aflexible plastic material, itis also contemplated that said panels would be made of any other suitable stiff material such as wood, fiberboard, or the like, whereby the game can be assembled by first plac-' ing game pieces 16 into recesses 52 of panel 48, after which, panel 47 would be superimposed uponpanel 48 with proper registration of apertures 51 with recesses 52 whereby said game pieces would be retained captive within the game board 46. Thus, according to the embodiment of FIG. 6, the game board and game pieces can be readily assembled in the event that it is intended to make the device with non-flexible game board materials.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments and examples, it will be apparent to those skilled, in the art that variations and modifications can be substituted therefor without departing from the principles and true spirit of the invention.

We claim:

1. A game comprising a game board, a plurality of spaced circular recesses in said board, a flat bottom in each of said recesses, a circular game piece for each of said recesses, each game piece having a flat bottom near the bottom of its respective recess, the annular inner wall of each recess and the peripheral annular wall of each game piece having complementary curvatures whereby each game piece is retained captive within its respective recess and is pivotlessly rotatable therein only in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane of the game board, an elongated boss located on each game piece and raised above the top surface thereof, said boss performing the functions both of indicating either the in play or out of play position of said game piece, and of a grasping member for rotation of said game piece by the player, a first set of index marks spatially arrayed on the surface of said game board, and a second set of index marks spatially arrayed on the surface of said game board, said game piece being rotatable to either of two positions where said boss points to one of said first set of marks to represent the in play position of said game piece, and

points to one of said second set 'of marks to represent,

the out ofplay position of said game piece.

2. A game according to claim 1 wherein said first set of index marks is arrayed at an angle relative to said second set of index marks.

3. A garrie according to claim 2 wherein said first set of index marks is arrayed 90 relative to said second set of index marks.

4. A gamecomprising a game board, a plurality of spaced circular recesses in said board, a flat bottom in each of said recesses, a circular game piece for each of said recesses, each game piece having a flat bottom near the bottom of its respective recess, first means in each recess and second means on each game piece cooperating to retain said game piece in said board, said game piece being pivotlessly rotatable within said recess only in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane of the game board, an integrally formed elongated boss on the top surface of each game piece, said boss being raised above the surface of said game piece for providing manual gripping meansto rotate said game piece and to indicate that the game piece is in either one of in play or out of play posi-, tions, a first set of ,a plurality of index marks on said board, and a second set of a plurality of index marks on said board, the in play and out of play positions of each game piece being indicated by the alignment of said boss with an index mark of one or the other of said sets of marks.

5. A game comprising a game board, a plurality of spaced. circular recesses in said board, a flat bottom in each of said recesses,'a circular game piece for each of said recesses, each game piece having a flat bottom adjacent and rotatable relative to the bottom of its respectiverecess, the annular inner wall of each recess and the peripheral annular wall of each game piece having respective complementary convex and concave curvatures which cooperate in slidable juxtaposition to retain captive each game piece within its respective recess, said wall curvatures being arrayed substantially at right angles to the annular curvatures of said recess and of said game piece, said complementary curvatures restricting the rotation of each respective game piece on its axis only and in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane of thegame board, first means on the exposed portion of each game piece and second means on the face of said game board, said first means being operative when each game piece is rotated to provide visual indication in respect of said second means as to the in-play and out-of-play status of said game piece.

6'. A game according to claim wherein said first 

1. A game comprising a game board, a plurality of spaced circular recesses in said board, a flat bottom in each of said recesses, a circular game piece for each of said recesses, each game piece having a flat bottom near the bottom of its respective recess, the annular inner wall of each recess and the peripheral annular wall of each game piece having complementary curvatures whereby each game piece is retained captive within its respective recess and is pivotlessly rotatable therein only in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane of the game board, an elongated boss located on each game piece and raised above the top surface thereof, said boss performing the functions both of indicating either the ''''in play'''' or ''''out of play'''' position of said game piece, and of a grasping member for rotation of said game piece by the player, a first set of index marks spatially arrayed on the surface of said game board, and a second set of index marks spatially arrayed on the surface of said game board, said game piece being rotatable to either of two positions where said boss points to one of said first set of marks to represent the ''''in play'''' position of said game piece, and points to one of said second set of marks to represent the ''''out of play'''' position of said game piece.
 2. A game according to claim 1 wherein said first set of index marks is arrayed at an angle relative to said second set of index marks.
 3. A game according to claim 2 wherein said first set of index marks is arrayed 90* relative to said second set of index marks.
 4. A game comprising a game board, a plurality of spaced circular recesses in said board, a flat bottom in each of said recesses, a circular game piece for each of said recesses, each game piece having a flat bottom near the bottom of its respective recess, first means in each recess and second means on each game piece cooperating to retain said game piece in said board, said game piece being pivotlessly rotatable within said recess only in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane of the game board, an iNtegrally formed elongated boss on the top surface of each game piece, said boss being raised above the surface of said game piece for providing manual gripping means to rotate said game piece and to indicate that the game piece is in either one of ''''in play'''' or ''''out of play'''' positions, a first set of a plurality of index marks on said board, and a second set of a plurality of index marks on said board, the ''''in play'''' and ''''out of play'''' positions of each game piece being indicated by the alignment of said boss with an index mark of one or the other of said sets of marks.
 5. A game comprising a game board, a plurality of spaced circular recesses in said board, a flat bottom in each of said recesses, a circular game piece for each of said recesses, each game piece having a flat bottom adjacent and rotatable relative to the bottom of its respective recess, the annular inner wall of each recess and the peripheral annular wall of each game piece having respective complementary convex and concave curvatures which cooperate in slidable juxtaposition to retain captive each game piece within its respective recess, said wall curvatures being arrayed substantially at right angles to the annular curvatures of said recess and of said game piece, said complementary curvatures restricting the rotation of each respective game piece on its axis only and in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane of the game board, first means on the exposed portion of each game piece and second means on the face of said game board, said first means being operative when each game piece is rotated to provide visual indication in respect of said second means as to the in-play and out-of-play status of said game piece.
 6. A game according to claim 5 wherein said first means comprises an elongated element located on the exposed surface of each game piece and raised above said surface, and wherein said second means comprises a plurality of spaced index marks on the surface of said game board toward and from which said element is movable when its respective game piece is rotated. 